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Mexico Says It Has Kidnapper Who Cut Wealthy Victims' Ears

A ninemonth manhunt has ended with the capture of a brazen and violent kidnapper who used scissors to cut off his victims' ears and who had said he would never be captured alive, the authorities announced today.

Attorney General Jorge Madrazo said at a news conference this morning that a group of federal and state police officers had used legal wiretaps and information gained from plea bargains with jailed gang members to capture the fugitive, Daniel Arizmendi Lopez. The officials said

Mr. Arizmendi had carried out at least 18 kidnappings since 1996, often with the help of current and former police officials.

Mr. Arizmendi, 40, confessed to four murders today, officials said. He was caught here on Monday, when he arrived at a meeting of associates only to find the police waiting for him, the Attorney General of the State of Mexico, Jorge Reyes Santana, said in a radio interview.

The authorities said 16 other people, including six youths, had also been arrested in connection with the kidnappings.

The authorities said Mr. Arizmendi's operations were complicated, involving up to 12 members of his organization. They stopped a potential victim's car by blocking its way with up to three trucks, crashing into security vehicles that executives sometimes use for protection and shooting bodyguards who tried to resist, the authorities said.

Hostages were usually taken to a safe house, where they were stripped and isolated, the officials said, adding that at some point the victim was told that it was time for ''some therapy,'' and an ear was severed and sent to the victim's family.

Terrified executives who heard of the kidnappings demanded police action, and one official said an order had come directly from President Ernesto Zedillo to catch Mr. Arizmendi using whatever means necessary.

The first of several breaks occurred in May, when the police captured Mr. Arizmendi's son and mother, as well as other members of his organization. The police raided several safe houses used by the gang in the State of Morelos and found more than $5 million in ransom money.

Reaction to the kidnappings pressured the authorities, who said they were hampered by the gang's links to corrupt police officers who had been bribed for protection. On June 2, with the police throughout central Mexico looking for him, Mr. Arizmendi called a newspaper here, Reforma.

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At the end of June the police acted on information from people linked to the gang who had received reduced sentences or pardons in return for their testimony. After a shootout with police, Mr. Arizmendi's brother and right-hand assistant, Aurelio Arizmendi Lopez, was captured here.

Aurelio Arizmendi told reporters that his brother used a pair of scissors to cut the ears off his victims without anesthesia or medication. ''But it wasn't to make them suffer,'' Mr. Arizmendi said. ''It was only to pressure them. That was our business.''

Without his closest allies to turn to for help and with the police pursuit intensifying, Daniel Arizmendi appeared to go into hiding. But this month, the police said today, he kidnapped the son of a wealthy executive from Queretaro, providing the police with a chance to detain him.

Attorney General Madrazo said that armed with the information from four cooperating witnesses, along with Aurelio Arizmendi's cooperation, authorities could trace Daniel Arizmendi's movements.

Mr. Madrazo said that for some reason that is not clear the kidnappers almost immediately shot and killed the victim, Raul Nieto del Rio. The slaying did not prevent the kidnappers from calling the family and demanding $15 million in ransom.

After being arrested on Monday, Mr. Arizmendi was taken before a judge in Queretaro, where he was charged in the kidnapping and slaying of Mr. Nieto del Rio.

''Yesterday was a day of bad luck for me,'' Mr. Arizmendi told a reporter from TV Azteca as he was taken to Mexico City, where he is expected to face another judge on more charges before being sent to a nearby maximum-security prison.

The head of the organized-crime unit of the Attorney General's office, Samuel Gonzalez Ruiz, said 39 members of the Arizmendi gang had been arrested. Some have been sentenced to the maximum 40 years in prison.

''We believe,'' Mr. Gonzalez Ruiz said, ''that with the efforts that have been made so far the other members of this organization will receive long sentences too. This has been a great effort to put an end to impunity.''

Authorities said they planned to return the confiscated ransoms to the victims and their families. Eighty claims have been presented.